DAY 84 — March 29, 2017 – Aqaba, JORDAN
Petra
The appeal of visiting Jordan for us – mainly – was the chance to see
the rose-red city of Petra, an incredible man-made archaeological wonder
carved out of the mountains more than 2000 years ago.
Petra was the capital of the Nabatean Empire from the first
century BC. It came to prominence
because of its location along the frankincense, myrrh, and spice trade
routes. Eventually the Romans took it
over but in 363 AD, a large earthquake destroyed much of the city
leading to its downfall.
By the 7th
century it was totally abandoned and only the local Bedouins in the area knew
about it, using its magnificent structures and caves for housing and animal
stables. In 1812, a Swiss explorer
“found” it and made the world aware of its existence. It wasn’t until the 1990’s, though, that
UNESCO adopted it and turned it into a World Heritage Site, bringing the money
to preserve what could be seen and excavate what was still hidden. It is estimated that only 15% of Petra has
been uncovered so far and that excavations will continue for 100 years bringing
new wonders of the ancient world to generations to come. It is a HUGE tourist attraction.
I chose to book our trip with a local travel company, Jordan Memory
Tours (JMT), rather than take a HAL sponsored shore excursion. An often-heard criticism of ship excursions
is that they are way too expensive, the group is too big, herding
everyone around eats up a lot of time, and, as a result, your
opportunity to fully explore the very large, multi-level city of Petra is
limited.
Getting around Petra once you are inside is physically challenging for all
visitors because the trek requires you to walk a long distance through sand
and on uneven terrain, in the heat.
It takes a lot of time and it saps all your energy. Because of that, most people get to the end
of the lower city and are too exhausted to climb the 920 stairs to see the
upper city and its magnificent excavations.
Then, they have to hurry to get back to the bus on time. A visitor needs a good 4 hours to get all the
way in to Petra, and another two hours to get back out.
Booking independent shore excursions are appealing because they are
usually cheaper and the group is smaller.
They carry innate risks, however. Will you get back to the ship on
time? What happens if there is an
accident? Will you have a good
experience?
My contact at JMT, turned out to be a Hungarian woman now living
in Jordan and we bonded over our shared Hungarian link. In over 100 emails throughout the summer and
fall of 2016, we worked out all the details of a special tour of Petra
that would be different than what 95% of Petra visitors see. She offered us a special “back way” tour
in which her company would bring us around to the back of the site, enjoy the
spectacular scenery there, and then we would walk into upper Petra, see the excavations
there and walk down through Petra and out to our bus. It would take us 1.5 hours to get into the
“back way,” cutting the normal 4-hour walking time considerably, and giving us
more time and energy to enjoy Petra.
It sounded great, had a good price, and after I started talking
advertising it, 26 others asked to join us.
What JMT failed to tell me – and that we all only realized when we got
up there with no way to turn back -- was that you needed to be part
mountain-goat to come in through the “back way.” No, we wouldn’t have to climb 920 steps
inside Petra, we would be CLIMBING A bleeping MOUNTAIN to get to the
back side of Petra.
As you might guess, the passengers on world cruises tend not to be
young, agile, mountain-goats. The people
who joined us knew there was still some walking involved but such a rosy
picture had been painted for this “back way,” faster route we all thought we
could manage it. Just in case, however,
I had arranged for a second tour guide to take some participants in the front
way if they decided, after seeing the place, they would prefer that. Six of our group of 28 chose that
option. Three of our group did not opt
for that but they should have.
So, 22 of us headed out the “back way” and oh, my gosh, was it ever
beautiful! Most of it was easy
enough. There was some climbing up and
some climbing down -- and a lot of opportunities for spectacular photos. But then there were some parts where you
needed to cling to the side of the rock with your fingertips (and a prayer) as
you inched along the narrowest of ledges with plunging drop-offs to your right.
Three people in our group started to falter right away. Ron and I stayed back with them encouraging
them along and staying with them in case of a fall, a turned ankle, a stroke, a
heart attack . . . who knew what?
Our tour guide, highly experienced and knowledgeable about the area,
led the rest of the group on but when two hours went by and he could see no
sign of us, he saved the day by sending donkeys to bring the strugglers the rest of
the way. I was never so happy to see a
donkey in my life!
Ron and I still had to walk/climb the rest of the way but with easier
minds knowing we wouldn’t have to call in helicopters to bring accident victims
out. (Not that we would have known how to do that.) And was the monument revealed to us at the
end of the mountain climb worth it?
Well, of course I am now going to say “absolutely.” At the time, all we could really think about
was “we made it without losing a single life.”
Now there’s a tour review line that could get attention.
Plus, we still had to walk DOWN 920 steps – with nothing to hang on to
– and which we shared with donkeys and goats going up AND down.
See the photos below for a glimpse into this incredible tour. It is one that we will remember FOREVER. (You will notice the Ron is doing all the
work while I just take photos . . . and worry.)
Starting the climb.
Realizing we were in trouble.
It goes on and on.
And on.
The poisonous plant
one of our stragglers contemplated eating.
The first donkey arrives. YAY!
Getting on the
donkey.
STAYING on the
donkey.
The end of the
“back way”is finally in sight. It only took three hours.
Our “back-way”
goal: The Monastery which is the
largest monument in Petra, measuring 47 meters wide by 51 meters high. This is the place most Petra visitors do not
see
Heading down the
920 steps onto lower Petra. This
probably wore everyone out as much as the climb up.
A Petra camel at the bottom of the steps laughing at our foolishness. Heh
We finally got
to the façade of The Treasury five hours after we started into Petra. This is the monument we would have seen first
in Petra if we came in the front way. 40
Meters tall, the impressive Treasury,was used in the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Exiting Petra
through the 1 km long Siq, a narrow gorge that hid Petra from the world
for 1000 years. We began our journey
into Petra at 10:30 am and got back to our bus at 5:30 pm, totally exhausted
and happy to have survived. We lost our
guide though. Without our knowledge, he
had been suffering from a kidney stone attack all day and he finally collapsed
at the exit, having gotten us all out alive.
He was whisked away to the local hospital for surgery. We have since heard everything went well. We also heard that when he finishes his PhD
from Manchester University in England next December, he will become the head of
the UNESCO office in Petra. We were in
good hands. HE knew how to call for
donkeys . . . and a helicopter, if
necessary.
We returned to
the ship at 7:30 pm. (We left at 8:00 am.)
My fitness tracker indicated we walked 11.3 miles. It was a long day with many memories and a
lesson learned: if it sounds too easy, there is probably a catch. Who knew that I would have to go half way
around the world to learn this age-old lesson?
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